XIV 
preface. 
jection ever so solid, there it cannot exist. 
Ireland possesses an enormous population 
of women and children ; it is they who 
must perform those delicate operations of 
reeling, which the more clumsy hands of 
the other sex are incapable of performing. 
The Irish proprietor must then, and 
does, view this attempt with the most in- 
tense interest, — must wish the fullest suc- 
cess to the objects of the company ; nor is 
it out of his power to aid them. Let each 
proprietor, following the example of the 
noble and distinguished Irish characters 
who patronise this company, devote some 
part of his estate to the cultivation of the 
white mulberry-tree, and let him feel as- 
sured that by so doing he is conferring on 
his country a source of inexhaustible fu- 
ture comfort and prosperity. But at the 
same time let not the proprietor of this 
country remain idle, and permit the sister 
isle to reap the entire benefit of so rich a 
mine ; let him recollect that, in whatever 
part of the united kingdom the cultivation 
of silk shall be established, that there the 
manufactures dependant on it must follow. 
